


cast me down where the devil don't go

by amosanguis



Series: soul-bond/soulmates AUs [9]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Minor Character Death, Mucking About With The Canon Timeline, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, but it's Boomer so does anyone really care?, first words au, title from a song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 23:40:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14200170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: When Dean first said her words to her, Beth had been ecstatic – over the moon – had thought to herself:This is it. This is the man I’m going to get old and die with.(Rio doesn't have words.)





	cast me down where the devil don't go

**Author's Note:**

> \--Title from "Where the Devil Don't Go" by Elle King  
> \--FBI? Don't know her.

-z-

 

When Dean first said her words to her, Beth had been ecstatic – over the moon – had thought to herself: _This is it. This is the man I’m going to get old and die with_.

Twenty years and four kids later and Beth is sitting in the dark, sipping bourbon and taking in her husband’s – her _soulmate’s_ – failures, financial and marital.

 

-

 

Rio is everything Dean isn’t. Rio is long and lean and smells like gunpowder.

Rio doesn’t have words.

 

-

 

Beth tries to ask once, but Rio just smirks before sliding out of bed.

She doesn’t try asking again.

 

-

 

Beth knows that Rio is simply indulging himself by being with her – that he’ll stop coming over once he’s had his fill – or she’s lost him enough money, failed enough jobs – whichever happens first.

 

-

 

Boomer comes after Annie again and this time, when Beth hits him, he doesn’t get back up.

Rio finds the three of them struggling to maneuver Boomer – now in rigor mortis – into the back of Beth’s shot-up minivan, and Rio laughs – actually doubles over and slaps at his thighs and _laughs_.

Beth hisses at him: “Cackle a little bit louder, I don’t think the Robinsons at the end of the block heard you.”

Rio puts his hand up in surrender, still chuckling, before he waves his two men forward. One of them is smirking and shaking his head at them as he easily takes the body from the three women and moves away, towards another car.

“We’ll take care of it,” Rio says. He jerks his head at Beth’s front door. “Go bake or whatever.”

“Bake?” Beth says, voice a whisper still tinged with panic. “How could I think of _baking_ at a time like this?”

Rio steps in close – not quite looming as he looks down at her through half-lidded eyes. “We’ll take care of it. Go back inside.”

“That’s all _I_ needed to hear,” Annie says, slapping Rio on the shoulder before turning on her heel and walking towards the house. Ruby, who had been inside the minivan, quickly gets out and follows her.

Beth and Rio continue to stare at each other before Beth finally steps away.

 

-

 

Rio doesn’t stop coming over – Beth and Annie and Ruby continue to get better.

Beth and Annie expand the operations, recruiting several more women into cleaning Rio’s money in larger and larger amounts.

Ruby learns how to tend stab- and bullet wounds. She keeps her medical supplies first only at Beth’s house but then, after a particularly memorable occasion involving three of Rio’s men, an opossum, and a Monet painting, Ruby starts keeping supplies in her car, too. She tells Stan she’s been volunteering down at a free clinic and he smiles at her and kisses her and tells her how proud he is, the flash of his badge in the kitchen light a subtle condemnation that Ruby ignores.

 

-

 

Dean says the word _cancer_ and Beth feels her stomach drop. This man was still her soulmate, even if their connection had died a long time ago, and she finds herself caring despite her feelings – or lack thereof – towards Dean.

So, when he asks if he can come home, she says, “Yes,” without thinking. Immediately, she regrets it – Rio would be by tonight. She texts him to give him a heads up, thinking it’d be enough to keep him away.

Instead, Rio shows up with flowers for Beth and a goddamned _Get Well_ balloon for Dean.

Dean just blinks at the balloon, at Rio, at Beth, back to Rio, back to Beth – he was still blinking stupidly at them when Rio sighs, ties the balloon around Dean’s wrist before he puts his hand on the small of Beth’s back and leads her to the bedroom.

With the door firmly closed and locked, Beth smacks Rio on the arm, demands, “What were you thinking?”

Rio shrugs and smirks, brushing the whole thing away with a wave of his hand before he leans down and kisses her. He pulls back just far enough to tell her, “You know he’s lying, right? As soon as I walked in and looked at him, and he looked at me, I could _see_ it. He’s not sick. He’s trying to get you back.”

The words are like a smack to the face – one Rio doesn’t let her feel the sting of too long before he’s leaning down again, pulling her flush against him and digging his fingers in her hair. He backs her up to the bed and as they fall back into it, he says, “He’s not getting you back.” He puts his hands between her legs, pushing them apart as he lowers himself between them, adds, “Let him know.”

Then she’s throwing her head back as Rio sets his tongue to work.

(In the morning, Dean is gone and the balloon is in shreds by the front door.)

 

-z-

 

End.


End file.
